Posted on 10/13/2001 5:02:03 PM PDT by Diogenesis
Iraq 'behind US anthrax outbreaks'
David Rose and Ed Vulliamy, New York
Sunday October 14, 2001
The Observer
American investigators probing anthrax outbreaks in
Florida and New York believe they have all the
hallmarks of a terrorist attack - and have named Iraq
as prime suspect as the source of the deadly spores.
Their inquiries are adding to what US hawks say is a
growing mass of evidence that Saddam Hussein was
involved, possibly indirectly, with the 11 September
hijackers.
If investigators' fears are confirmed - and sceptics
fear American hawks could be publicising the claim to
press their case for strikes against Iraq - the pressure
now building among senior Pentagon and White
House officials in Washington for an attack may
become irresistible.
Plans have been discussed among Pentagon
strategists for US air strike support for armed
insurrections against Saddam by rebel Kurds in the
north and Shia Muslims in the south with a promise of
American ground troops to protect the oilfields of
Basra.
Contact has already been made with an Iraqi
opposition group based in London with a view to
installing its members as a future government in
Baghdad.
Leading US intelligence sources, involved with both
the CIA and the Defence Department, told The
Observer that the 'giveaway' which suggests a state
sponsor for the anthrax cases is that the victims in
Florida were afflicted with the airborne form of the
disease.
'Making anthrax, on its own, isn't so difficult,' one
senior US intelligence source said. 'But it only begins
to become effective as a biological weapon if they
can be made the right size to breathe in. If you can't
get airborne infectivity, you can't use it as a weapon.
That is extremely difficult. There is very little leeway.
Most spores are either too big to be suspended in air,
or too small to lodge on the lining of the lungs.'
As claims about an Iraqi link grew, senior health
officials in Britain revealed they warned all the
country's GPs last week to be vigilant about the
disease. 'I think we have to be prepared to think the
unthinkable,' said the Government's Chief Medical
Officer, Dr Liam Donaldson. The Department of
Health confirmed the Government is conducting an
urgent review of Britain's ability to cope with chemical
or biological attacks.
US intelligence believes Iraq has the technology and
supplies of anthrax suitable for terrorist use. 'They
aren't making this stuff in caves in Afghanistan,' the
CIA source said. 'This is prima facie evidence of the
involvement of a state intelligence agency. Maybe Iran
has the capability. But it doesn't look likely politically.
That leaves Iraq.'
Last autumn Mohamed Atta is said by US intelligence
officials to have met in Prague an agent from Iraqi
intelligence called Ahmed Samir al-Ahani, a former
consul later expelled by the Czechs for activities not
compatible with his diplomatic mission.
The Czechs are also examining the possibility that
Atta met a former director of Saddam's external
secret services, Farouk Hijazi, at a second meeting in
the spring. Hijazi is known to have met Bin Laden.
It was confirmed yesterday that Jim Woolsey, CIA
director from 1993 to 1996, recently visited London on
behalf of the hawkish Defence Department to 'firm up'
other evidence of Iraqi involvement in 11 September.
Problem: Saddam has already MURDERED his own family.
If you are referring to nuclear bombs, I agree.
Word is that's why, in addition to 9-11, Tony Blair is so red hot and ready to rumble.
I recall reading that a company in Florida supplied Iraq with this technology during the Iran/Iraq war. I must do a search.
Wanna place bets on when Baghdad will become a cinder???
Hawkish? Is there another type of Defence Department?
He still has two sons he's fond of. The problem is that he's been grooming them to run the country when he's gone, and they're even more crazy/ruthless than he is. He even pits them against each other to hone their skills at treachery.
If we take Saddam out, we need to get his sons at the same time.
We should nuke Baghdad and its biomicrobe hatcheries.
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